German Chancellor Olaf Scholz vowed on Thursday to change deportation rules to allow the country to deport immigrants convicted of serious crimes. The move follows a deadly knife attack by an Afghan man, which has prompted calls for tougher immigration policies.
Addressing the Bundestag, the lower house of the German parliament, about a week after a man from Afghanistan killed a 29-year-old police officer and severely wounded six others in the southwestern city of Mannheim, Mr. Scholz said Germans are “shaken and shocked” by the attack.
“I’m appalled and indignant when someone commits a crime who sought protection in this country, thus, such criminals need to be deported, even if they come from Syria or Afghanistan,” Mr. Scholz said to the applause of lawmakers.
“Criminals and terrorists causing a threat to public security have no place here,” he continued. “In such cases, Germany’s security interests are more important than the protective interest of the perpetrator.”
Mr. Scholz said Germany’s Federal Ministry of the Interior is working to make the deportation of terrorists and dangerous immigrants to countries in the Middle East possible. The move is part of a new strategy by the German government to combat radical Islamism.
He also promised that deportation rules for all others who commit or support terrorism will be toughened.
The suspect, identified by local news outlets as a 25-year-old Afghan man who came to Germany in 2014 as an asylum-seeker, was captured on video during a frenzied attack in which he stabbed multiple people and a police officer who tried to intervene.
The attacker was eventually shot and injured by another police officer.
During Thursday’s parliamentary session, Mr. Scholz honored the “heroic” fallen officer identified as Rouven L., telling lawmakers “he gave his life for our freedom and our security.”
The police officer was stabbed in the head and neck and underwent emergency surgery after the attack, officials said. He was placed in an artificial coma but died of his injuries on June 2, two days after the attack.
Immigration Top Concern for German Voters
Mr. Scholz, a member of the Social Democratic Party, addressed parliament just days before the European elections in which right-wing parties are expected to win more seats.Currently, Germany does not carry out any deportations to Afghanistan or Syria. The German government does not have any diplomatic relations with the Taliban in Kabul and considers the security situation in Syria too fragile to allow deportations there.
It is unclear how fast, if at all, the German government will be able to execute more deportations of criminal foreigners.
Britta Hasselmann, the parliamentary leader of the Alliance 90/The Greens party, which is also part of Mr. Scholz’s governing coalition, questioned how realistic the chancellor’s deportation plans were.
She said it would be difficult to negotiate a deportation agreement with the Taliban or Afghanistan’s neighboring countries.
“It will have to be ... examined for which third country it should be attractive to take in terrorists or serious criminals. I am looking forward to seeing what answers we come up with,” she said.
